Lighting devices with incandescent and arc discharge lamps are routinely used to illuminate the exterior areas of commercial businesses for purposes of enhancing the appearance of the business at night and for promoting interest in the goods and services of the business by actual and potential customers. Restaurants, shopping malls, and automobile dealerships represent just a few of the business types for which exterior luminaires play an important role in marketing and facilitating product sales.
In the example of automobile dealerships, exterior area lighting is frequently used to illuminate the exterior surface parking lots which surround the typical automobile dealership. The lighting fixtures are typically pole-mounted so as to distribute light across the exterior surface parking lot. The purpose of the exterior area lighting is to illuminate the rows of automobiles parked side-by-side outside the dealership so that they can be viewed at night by potential customers driving past the dealership and by customers who may walk onto the dealership property. Since automobiles available for sale on a dealership exterior surface parking lot tend to be organized in rows, it is advantageous to provide exterior area luminaires which project uniform bright light in a generally rectangular pattern to the front and sides of the luminaires, concentrated on the row of automobiles.
It is particularly advantageous for automobile dealerships to brightly and uniformly illuminate the outermost row of automobiles which is the row which can be most easily seen by passing customers. This outermost row of automobiles is often referred to as the “front line” of automobiles. Bright illumination of these front line automobiles is useful to attract customers by enhancing the gloss, shine and generally attractive appearance of the automobiles available for sale.
While many exterior area lighting products are available, such products are not optimally effective in brightly illuminating a generally rectangular area in front of and to the sides of the luminaire. For example, luminaires which include a vertically oriented lamp tend to be effective in producing a more circular lighting effect because of the upright orientation of the lamp arc or filament but tend to be less than satisfactory in generating a rectangular lighting effect for the same reason. A solution to this problem is to provide a luminaire with a horizontally mounted lamp. The horizontal orientation of the lamp arc or filament is more conducive to production of a rectangular lighting effect. However, horizontally mounted lamps tend to be relatively energy inefficient compared with vertically mounted lamps because more energy is required to operate the lamp to overcome the effect of gravity on the lamp arc.
While it is important for businesses such as automobile dealerships to use exterior area lighting for purposes of aesthetics and marketing, it is also important to employ exterior area lighting which is energy efficient and which provides the needed illumination at the least possible cost to the business. One way to achieve these efficiencies is to provide exterior lighting which is optimized for efficient area light distribution, thereby providing an opportunity to space the luminaires far apart so as to minimize the number of luminaires required to illuminate a given area. Another way to achieve these efficiencies is to provide exterior area lighting which optimally illuminates the products and things to be illuminated and nothing else, thereby converting consumed energy to useful light. Yet another strategy is to utilize luminaires with generally vertically oriented lamps so as to minimize energy consumption compared to a horizontally mounted lamp.
Many governmental entities are enacting rules and regulations requiring use of more energy efficient luminaires. For example, some governmental entities have enacted rules limiting or banning the use of the relatively less efficient luminaires with horizontally oriented lamps. And, governmental entities are adopting building codes and other rules imposing limits on the amount of electrical energy that can be consumed by a commercial business which utilizes exterior area illumination. Use of more efficient luminaires, therefore, is being driven by a growing body of governmental regulations.
An issue related to efficient exterior area illumination is the need to avoid what is called “light trespass.” Light trespass refers to spillage of light from one exterior location to an adjacent exterior location. In effect, light trespass represents wasted light. Not only is this inefficient, but such light trespass can be a violation of governmental regulations.
As can be appreciated, automobile dealerships with exterior surface parking lots and numerous exterior luminaires must be mindful of avoiding unwanted spillage of light onto the property of adjacent businesses, residences, and roadways. Illumination of front line automobiles at the dealership should be targeted and effective to promote the sale of product while minimizing any unwanted impact on the enjoyment of adjacent property by others or of operation of motor vehicles passing by the automobile dealership on an adjacent roadway.
There exists a need exists for an improved luminaire, particularly a luminaire which provides desired lighting distribution and efficiency.